Development Release Damn Small Linux 4.11 RC1 2012-08-04.
 

After 2 years and 2 months, DSL finally has a new release candidate. Opinions please!

Not a lot of response, I see. Here's one review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvrfBTrgfPU

DSL has its niche. It is the only OS that I have been able to use to coax my K6-2 into playing video reasonably well, through Xine.

My legacy machines are set up with the following OS's:

386, 486dx2 - PC-DOS 6.1, BasicLinux 3.5 http://www.volny.cz/basiclinux1/
AMD K6/2-450 - FreeDOS 1.1, OS/2 Warp 4, DSL
PI - PC-DOS DSL, Puppy Linux
PIII - PC-DOS 6.1, DSL, #!Crunchbang 9.04
AMD Turion 64 - Crunchbang 11

I've a 64MB pendrive with DSL 2.4.31 in it & working OK. What I would like is to know is what way to go in order to upgrade to the newest DSL version?

Also important is to know if there's a way to use a java-supporting browser in DSL? Maybe for this last issue the 64 MB pendrive is out of the equation: can't hold much more than what it already has.

In the other hand, I've a 128MB compact flash card that I can use for the newer version (have also its usb adapter).

What insights can you (anybody) might give me as to how to proceed? Thanks in advance!

NOTE: Should I open this discussion in its own thread?

Hello Benny7440.

About Java, I use the following from the MyDSL repository...

Java jre1_5_0.tar.gz from http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/mydsl/system/
gtk2-0705.dsl from http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/mydsl/gtk2/ (must be activated)
Opera852.dsl from http://distro.ibiblio.org/damnsmall/mydsl/net/

Download Adobe Flash 7 here: http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get...p7_archive.zip . This is the last supported version, and it won't work properly with YouTube. HOWEVER, you CAN tack a 'Download Button' add-on to your Opera browser, and play stuff back using Xine!

This is the only way that I've managed to get my K6 to play back YouTube in any way.

Cheers,

-Martin.

Thanks for replying, elephantrange!

Do you beleive the 128 MB CFCard with an USB adapter would be appropriate for installing the newest DSL version & will it hold the best supported browser with the jre plugin?

What steps to follow if my only OS now is Puppy Linux 5.28?

Thanks in advance for any help on this!

It doesn't matter if you run Puppy as your main OS. You'll need to boot from the DSL Linux live CD to do this.

The DSL wiki page gives the following instruction here:

Now, this is all true, but I'll add that 128M is the MINIMUM required. The process reformats the entire drive.

GTK+, JRE, and Opera 8.52 are all large apps... by DSL standards, that is. 128M should still be plenty.

Oh yeah, I should put the link to the .iso for the new release candidate here I guess.

If I'm running a linux distribution, can't I download the iso, mount it, format appropriately a 128 MB CFCard (with usb adapter), copy the necessary files there (probably including a bootloader) & by making sure it's a bootable media, it might get it done?

The other option that I imagine is running DSL from another laptop, inserting that CFCard there & installing it from there. The reason for asking how to do it from Puppy is that I feel more comfortable with Puppy than with DSL but I'm willing to try it anyway. Need more specifics on how to do it!

PS. I also have another issue of another sort: Need to run Ophcrak to enter (using) a windows xp pro machine that's unreachable for now because of a forgotten pwd (not my compuer). So, I was wondering if I can put Ophcrack in the CFCard, run it from DSL (something that I already proved OK in that machine --booting from usb stick I mean) before I commit that media to a higher end???

Thanks for replying, elephantrange!

If I'm using PL528, can I start a virtualbox with DSL in it (newer version)? If this's possible, can I create then a DSL installation in a cfcard?

Thanks for any info on this! Is there someone that tried this already?

EDIT: The reason for the need to do this this way is because at the HP laptop I only have access to the CFCard via an usb adapter but at the VAIO I've a port specifically for this device. Apart from that, even though I've asked at the DSL forum about how to install a newer DSL version in the card only vague tips have been given.

PS. If that HP laptop is running with 512 RAM only, do you think I can mount the DSL iso file & proceed from that point on? I'm asking this because many times I've experienced DSL running too slow which points me to the 'possible' fact that I'm running low in memory there...

I've tried to enable apt several times & also used the 'make image' in floppy tool but it always returns with a #404 error. I can't be sure but I suspect that, since I'm using an old DSL version, the url addrs. are no longer valid.

If the above is correct, can I make appropriate changes in a config file to correct this? What about issuing the command right from the shell? In this case I need the right command from someone that knows how to do it...

It also has become a problem when I try to mount a floppy if the system encounters a problem in the disk it shows me a "clock" icon for > 15 mins, the device cannot be unmounted or the file manager stop responding for that period of time. Can I edit a 'pre-established' period of time somewhere to shorten this time period?

Thanks for any comment on these issues!

PS. I've been trying to make a freedos floppy disk from DSL but the process has failed me a couple of times already! For some reason the image is already saved but can't be moved to the floppy: do I've to use the floppy tool for this or can I just move the image to the floppy drive from the file manager? Can I download the file directly to the floppy? Guess that I need to mount the floppy first but I'm not completely sure...